![]() Traffic supported four inns in the town, one of which, the "Sorrel Horse," is said to have sheltered George Washington and General Lafayette during the encampment at Valley Forge the inn still stands as the Agnes Irwin Lower School. In 1741, the westward extension of the Conestoga Road, which ultimately connected Philadelphia and Lancaster, began for Radnor the enduring legacy of a place through which travelers passed. A hint of Radnor's beginning's remains, however, in the names of streets and places evident throughout the community. The influence of the Welsh - some of whom were forced by heavy taxation to sell their land - waned in the latter half of the 18th century. What is now open space at the Willows Park was once the Township's busiest commercial area. The exact geographical center of Radnor's rectangular border is a point less than 100 yards south of the original Quaker meetinghouse.īesides clearing and tilling fields for farmland, the Welsh established grist mills, sawmills, and tanneries using the power of Ithan and Darby creeks. Radnorville grew naturally around the meetinghouse and remained the center of population of the Township for 200 years. Later this trail became the Old Lancaster Road, then the Conestoga Road. In 1717 the Welsh Friends erected a meetinghouse on a trail made by the Conestoga (Susquehanna) Indians, connecting the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Rivers.
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